Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story' | Science | The Guardian
I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
Couldn't resist asking.:sneaky:
Where do all the calculators go?
Where do all the calculators go?
gmc;1359697 wrote: Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story' | Science | The Guardian
Couldn't resist asking.:sneaky:
Why is it that sane people are driven to calculate that three = one? How is it that even skeptics mention 'the trinity' as an item of genuine belief?
Does not the actual behaviour of humanity show that there are no unbelievers?
Couldn't resist asking.:sneaky:
Why is it that sane people are driven to calculate that three = one? How is it that even skeptics mention 'the trinity' as an item of genuine belief?
Does not the actual behaviour of humanity show that there are no unbelievers?
Where do all the calculators go?
xyz;1359704 wrote: Why is it that sane people are driven to calculate that three = one? How is it that even skeptics mention 'the trinity' as an item of genuine belief?
Does not the actual behaviour of humanity show that there are no unbelievers?
As a trivial example, in real life I am a flesh and blood human, in cyberlife I am Bryn Mawr - two aspects of the same being.
If we take God He is by definition God. If He chooses to act in this world in the form of a spirit then He is the Holy Spirit. If He chooses to act in this world in human form He is Jesus - three aspects of the same being.
Given a belief in God in the first place, what is so difficult in believing that He can appear to use mere mortals in different forms or so unbelievable that, being mere mortals, we should see those aspects as different "persons"?
In short, why is it insane for someone who accepts the concept of "God" to accept the concept of "God in three persons"?
As for the sweeping statement at the end, you're arguing from the general to the specific - because the bulk of humanity behaves in this way no individual believes "God does not exist". The logic does not work.
Does not the actual behaviour of humanity show that there are no unbelievers?
As a trivial example, in real life I am a flesh and blood human, in cyberlife I am Bryn Mawr - two aspects of the same being.
If we take God He is by definition God. If He chooses to act in this world in the form of a spirit then He is the Holy Spirit. If He chooses to act in this world in human form He is Jesus - three aspects of the same being.
Given a belief in God in the first place, what is so difficult in believing that He can appear to use mere mortals in different forms or so unbelievable that, being mere mortals, we should see those aspects as different "persons"?
In short, why is it insane for someone who accepts the concept of "God" to accept the concept of "God in three persons"?
As for the sweeping statement at the end, you're arguing from the general to the specific - because the bulk of humanity behaves in this way no individual believes "God does not exist". The logic does not work.
Where do all the calculators go?
Why is it otherwise rational people can be religious?
Where do all the calculators go?
Isn't rationality a relative term? Take myself for example, it's not me that's insane. It's the world I live in that is crazy. I'm actually normal.
Where do all the calculators go?
gmc;1359728 wrote: Why is it otherwise rational people can be religious?
Fear. Plain fear. That carpenter really gives some people that. It makes them lie, cheat, twist, go into all sort of mental contortions in order to evade his demands. So they lie foolishly when they say that a person can be blamed for the faults of another. They lie absurdly when they say that three persons can be one person, though of course one person can have eight personae, as Sir Alec Guinness had in Kind Hearts and Coronets. They cheat perversely when they say that the carpenter's mum had no sin, all on the basis of just one word that they inserted into Luke's record. They usurp authority on the basis of a risible claim. They murder, and say they do it in the name of the carpenter. They steal, they oppress, they corrupt, they fornicate, they sodomise, they have no respect for anyone, not even themselves. And people watch them in their insanitary insanity, and pay them respect, all but applaud them.
The reason for that is that their reason will take them, all of them, to the place they belong, which is morally equivalent to a cess-pit, and there be destroyed. Because they are rational, and no matter what the most illustrious mathematician may say, they know that rationality, and conscience, outlive the body, as their apparent insanity attests. That surviving personal character, that outcome, seems to be the final product of evolution, in a way that we do not understand, and perhaps do not want to understand.
Fear. Plain fear. That carpenter really gives some people that. It makes them lie, cheat, twist, go into all sort of mental contortions in order to evade his demands. So they lie foolishly when they say that a person can be blamed for the faults of another. They lie absurdly when they say that three persons can be one person, though of course one person can have eight personae, as Sir Alec Guinness had in Kind Hearts and Coronets. They cheat perversely when they say that the carpenter's mum had no sin, all on the basis of just one word that they inserted into Luke's record. They usurp authority on the basis of a risible claim. They murder, and say they do it in the name of the carpenter. They steal, they oppress, they corrupt, they fornicate, they sodomise, they have no respect for anyone, not even themselves. And people watch them in their insanitary insanity, and pay them respect, all but applaud them.
The reason for that is that their reason will take them, all of them, to the place they belong, which is morally equivalent to a cess-pit, and there be destroyed. Because they are rational, and no matter what the most illustrious mathematician may say, they know that rationality, and conscience, outlive the body, as their apparent insanity attests. That surviving personal character, that outcome, seems to be the final product of evolution, in a way that we do not understand, and perhaps do not want to understand.
Where do all the calculators go?
gmc;1359728 wrote: Why is it otherwise rational people can be religious?
No idea, I renounced the Church when I was ten - decided that it was responsible for more harm than good and I wanted nothing more to do with it.
No idea, I renounced the Church when I was ten - decided that it was responsible for more harm than good and I wanted nothing more to do with it.
Where do all the calculators go?
Bryn Mawr;1359737 wrote: No idea, I renounced the Church when I was ten - decided that it was responsible for more harm than good and I wanted nothing more to do with it.
I can understand the need for ritual and some communal way to deal with death etc but I know so many people that begin to get angry if they think you don't share or are in any way disparaging of their faith. You don't have to say anything they just need to think you are.
I can understand the need for ritual and some communal way to deal with death etc but I know so many people that begin to get angry if they think you don't share or are in any way disparaging of their faith. You don't have to say anything they just need to think you are.
Where do all the calculators go?
gmc;1359850 wrote: I can understand the need for ritual and some communal way to deal with death etc but I know so many people that begin to get angry if they think you don't share or are in any way disparaging of their faith. You don't have to say anything they just need to think you are.
It's that fear factor. Where a faith is perceived (unspokenly, of course) to be fragile, any influences that may destabilise it are discouraged and sanctioned.
It's that fear factor. Where a faith is perceived (unspokenly, of course) to be fragile, any influences that may destabilise it are discouraged and sanctioned.
Where do all the calculators go?
xyz;1359857 wrote: It's that fear factor. Where a faith is perceived (unspokenly, of course) to be fragile, any influences that may destabilise it are discouraged and sanctioned.
You are one of those who seem fearful of opinions that differ from your own and prefer to rant rather than discuss.
You are one of those who seem fearful of opinions that differ from your own and prefer to rant rather than discuss.
Where do all the calculators go?
gmc;1359932 wrote: You are one of those who seem fearful of opinions that differ from your own and prefer to rant rather than discuss.
If so, I'm one of millions who infect the internet with dubious motives.
But maybe I'm just one who's both knowledgeable and honest.
If so, I'm one of millions who infect the internet with dubious motives.
But maybe I'm just one who's both knowledgeable and honest.
Where do all the calculators go?
gmc;1359932 wrote: You are one of those who seem fearful of opinions that differ from your own and prefer to rant rather than discuss.
xyz;1359933 wrote: If so, I'm one of millions who infect the internet with dubious motives.
But maybe I'm just one who's both knowledgeable and honest.
Given your reaction to the OP of this thread and your lack of reaction to an invitation to discuss that reaction it would appear not.
xyz;1359933 wrote: If so, I'm one of millions who infect the internet with dubious motives.
But maybe I'm just one who's both knowledgeable and honest.
Given your reaction to the OP of this thread and your lack of reaction to an invitation to discuss that reaction it would appear not.